Here I Swear
by ElvenSailorGirl
Summary: A progression of perceptions concerning Hitler and Hitler’s Germany in five sections starting with a loyalist soldier and ending with Claus von Stauffenberg. All POV’s are very nationalist – Germany is as much a character as they are.


**Disclaimer:** I own nothing within. All this is is my interpretation of another interpretation of the actions and motivations of real men in a real event. I claim nothing and I make no money.

**Author's Note:** I was greatly disappointed that there were no introspective character pieces for this film, as I think it really lends itself to it. This is my attempt to rectify that.

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_Here I swear an oath..._

I meant every word. This man I swore to protect - to serve - had saved my country from a fate many of us feared was unavoidable. The least I could do was serve him as he had served us. This Germany, the glorious Germany he had resurrected from the ashes we were surrounded by before he came to us.

I am too young to have seen the first war, but my father served his country then, and I never aspired to more than he could do, leading me to join the army when the opportunity arose. After the war, there was nothing - even from when I can remember there were few opportunities, and less to own. And then he came, elected as chancellor, and led us out of the hovel we had been forcibly resigned to seeing our ever precious country as by those who thought we had done wrong in the first war.

He was like an angel or a saint, leading us forward to where our Germany was destined to be. The service he has done for Germany has earned the unswerving and total devotion of the people. Young though I may be at twenty and five, I intend to give it fully. Anything else would be a disservice to mein Deutschland.

_ ... to my Führer, Adolf Hitler._

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_Here I swear an oath..._

My position in Hitler's army has left me with a dilemma. I have never claimed to be a soldier out of some imagined sense of duty to the state. I know what I am, just as others do. My service, though I do hold my country in a high place of my heart, is out of the desire for personal gain. I have never once denied this. And yet, though I am left with an option that appeals to me and one that does not, I cannot find the proper reaction to the offer.

I knew it would happen eventually, for all that I do not know them by name, or rather, I do not know them all by name the Resistance had not fooled me into thinking that none of their ranks resided in the offices of the War Commission or other segments of the military force. Yet, I had never expected to be given such a blunt proposition. For my involvement in their plot, I would receive a significant promotion. An appealing idea - had it come attached to something other than high treason. My conscience, though admittedly not the stronger part of my mind, will not allow me to so lightly throw away the oaths sworn to mein Führer.

_ ... I will do nothing unless Hitler is dead._

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_Here I swear an oath..._

I have never doubted that this course of action was right. To remove Hitler, an embodiment of tyranny hiding under a mask of socialism and national pride, will remain to be the aim until we achieve success, and yet, as I wait, I find that more and more often I find myself glancing at the portrait of the man I intend to see dead. It is as if the oil paints know the true purpose of plan they hide, and the silent eyes stare through me, condemning me with every passing moment.

I know, as we all do the cost should we fail in our endeavor. The fear has not left me since my decision was made, and it eats away at the bottom of my stomach. Knowing what is right for my country does not abate the fear of dying seen as a traitor to her. I have never feared dying in her service, but the idea of being executed as a traitor to the country I was attempting to rescue stays my hand from the action I know I must enact. As weak as it may make me seem, I simply cannot stand the idea of the revulsion of mein Deutschland.

_ ... I will wait for confirmation._

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_Here I swear an oath..._

I have tried. I have done all I could to see my assignment carried out successfully. And still, at every turn I have been thwarted, and I have no explanation. I know that some would say that God is protecting him, but I cannot accept that. If anything, the man has sold his soul to the devil for some unnatural protection. The fact remains that it is my failure to finish this quickly. It is obvious that someone else is needed.

I do not doubt the need for this. I do not doubt that action is called for. I do not doubt that to that which is best for our country we will earn its hatred. Yet, I cannot find it within myself to continue on as the hands of this body, ever reaching for the neck of the condemned and never able to grasp it solidly. My failures have cost us enough time and we have little enough access to Hitler as it stands. One more failure will likely undo us.

The last was far too close. The bomb, though constructed correctly, did not detonate. I fear that in retrieving it I aroused more suspicions than I had intended or can be afforded. That is why another must be the one to kill this man - the man who will never be mein Führer.

_ ... we must show them that we are not all like him._

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_Here I swear an oath..._

It will be done. I will see it through with my own eyes; the blood will fall on my hands. Though the final execution of our plan has yet to happen, we have them in our grasp. It will be swift, done in a matter of hours. I cannot afford to think of failure, none of us can. The doubts will invade our minds if we do. We will be unable to stand the inaction that that will cause. Swift action will restore our holy Germany to her former glory.

She needs no Führer, no tyrant, and no mass killings to cleanse the blood of her patriots. The only blood required is from one man. He will not give it willingly I know, thinking himself above the sacrifice he demands of others. Yet as long as he controls this Germany who is merely a pale cousin to her true self, there will be the dilemma forcing men into inaction - a fear of losing his country to serve his Führer, or of losing his life to serve his country.

The only fear I have is not for me, but rather for my wife and children. I would not see my children only know this Germany, now that I have seen her as she is, blind as I was for a time. I will do what it seems no other man within this Resistance has the courage to do - forcefully take back mein Deutschland.

_ ...the __Führer is dead._

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**Author's Note:** So that's it. Please tell me what you think.

If you didn't catch the characters, the first part is from an unknown loyalist soldier, the second is Fromm, the third is Olbricht, the fourth is Tresckow, and the last is Stauffenberg. Hopefully, the bottom framing quotes made them obvious if they weren't already, which I was really banking on anyway.

Also, I did find that Germans generally refer to their country as the fatherland rather than the motherland, so I suppose the pronoun is incorrect, but I don't think that it works quite as well using the male pronoun. Maybe you disagree, but that was my feeling.


End file.
